Government Unions Are Hemorrhaging Members. Here’s Why.

The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report confirms the continuation of a decades-long trend: American workers are rejecting union membership in record numbers. For the first time since the BLS began tracking this data in 1983, less than 10% of the workforce belong to a labor union.

This historic decline isn’t happening by accident — it’s the direct result of workers having the freedom to choose whether their hard-earned dollars fund unions that consistently prioritize political activism over member interests.

The numbers tell a stark story. While overall union membership sits at 9.9%, Big Labor still maintains a stranglehold over public employees, 32.2% of whom are union members.

Of the 14.3 million union members nationwide, half work in government jobs, with teachers unions alone accounting for nearly one-quarter of all union members.  

The National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers together report around 3.5 million working members — but even this has declined consistently in recent years, especially since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in Janus v. AFSCME striking down laws requiring public employees to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment.

In states like Florida, where recent reforms ended government deduction of union dues from public employees’ paychecks, many workers didn’t feel the need to sign up to pay the union directly. The Florida Education Association alone lost more than 20,000 members in just one school year when teachers were given a meaningful choice about whether to fund union activities.

Overall, the percentage of public employees who were union members declined from 32.5% in 2023 to 32.2% last year. That’s down from 34.4% in 2017, the last year before the Supreme Court made union membership voluntary for government workers, despite government growth.

This exodus speaks volumes about the disconnect between union leadership and rank-and-file members.

Across the country, public employees are waking up to the reality that their unions aren’t fighting for their salaries, their benefits or their working conditions. In fact, government unions have morphed from worker advocacy organizations into political machines more interested in advancing progressive causes than representing their members’ interests.

They collect millions in dues from workers’ paychecks, then funnel that money into political campaigns and causes that many of their own members oppose.

My organization, the Freedom Foundation, has seen firsthand how workers respond when they learn the truth about their union’s political spending via its ongoing education campaign to help public employees understand their rights and make informed decisions about union membership.

The results are clear: When workers know they have a choice and understand how their dues are being spent, huge numbers of them choose to opt out.

This trend isn’t just about numbers — it’s about fundamental fairness and worker empowerment. Public employees shouldn’t be forced to fund political activities they disagree with just to keep their jobs. The dramatic membership declines indicate that when workers are given the freedom to choose, they often decide their unions no longer represent their best interests.

The success of reforms like Florida’s payroll protection law provides a roadmap for other states. When unions can no longer extract dues directly from workers’ paychecks, individual employees are empowered to make their own decisions about union membership.

This isn’t union-busting — it’s democracy in action.

As union membership continues its historic decline, union executives face a choice — return to their core mission of representing workers’ interests or continue losing members as they prioritize political activism. The numbers suggest they’re choosing the latter, and workers are voting with their wallets.

The path forward is clear. More states should follow Florida’s lead in implementing reforms that protect worker freedom.

Meanwhile, the Freedom Foundation will continue educating public employees about their rights and options. The era of unions treating worker dues as a blank check for political activism is ending — and the latest BLS numbers prove it.

The decline in union membership isn’t just a number — it’s a wakeup call. Government unions can no longer take their members for granted or assume their political agenda aligns with their members’ wishes.

Workers are speaking clearly through their actions. They want unions that represent their interests, not unions that see them as ATMs for progressive political causes.

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Aaron Withe is the CEO of the Freedom Foundation, a group dedicated to combatting government unions. He is the author of the book “Freedom is the Foundation: How We Are Defeating Progressive Tyranny By Taking On The Government Unions.”

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.